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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I Am 16, Going on 17...

In a few hours, it’ll be my 17th birthday. To be honest, I don’t see 17 as a very special birthday, apart from the fact that if I lived in America I’d be able to legally watch Shame, when in an actual fact I have to wait another year to see it legally in NZ (ironically, I am getting it for my birthday). Other than that, all I can say about this birthday is that it brings to a close what has probably been the best year of my life thus far. This time last year, I did my 16 Days of Birthday marathon (it was really a year ago?), building up the excitement to the birthday that would let me get R16 movies out myself. The year didn’t disappoint. It has been filled with some great achievements and memories, of which I am proud to have lived through in one way or another. Instead of boring you all with my usual “life is great!” speech that is so blatantly throwing heavy-handed inspiration at people who probably don’t need it, I’m going to share the 16 most memorable things that have happened to me in my 16th year of living. I feel like I should be apologising for yet another personal post, but I’ve built a blog based around my strange personality – another achievement which being 16 has lead me to. So, in no particular order, here’s my year:

-Getting a LAMMY for Best Rating System, along with being Runner Up for Best Blog, and then three other nominations on top of that.

-That Paramount call. Waiting for that call was pretty much the longest week of my life, and I could probably tell you everything I did that week even though it happened nine months ago. Anyway, it was awesome to get praise for a school essay from Hollywood.

-Finally seeing The Dark Knight Rises after four years of waiting, and crying my eyes out like I’ve never cried before.
-Doing this speech, which even though I was stressing so much about it, went really well.

-I got a little dog, Indy, who is the best movie companion ever. He may be a dog, but the way he watches films is so cute and inquisitive. Plus, it is his first birthday today.

-Cried at Senna, even though I had absolutely no idea about who Ayrton Senna was. It was a great experience.

-Fell in love with these idiots. Who go by the names of Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irvine, Tom Hiddleston and Ezra Miller.

-And fell in love with my darling Jessica Chastain. The day (three days after my last birthday) I saw The Tree of Life I mentioned to my friend how great it would be to finally see this Jessica person, and almost a year later, I love her dearly.

-Saw the greatness that is Shame, a literally howled at the end of it. I’d never seen anything like it.

-Finally left NZ and went to Melbourne. Which was great. I love that city. And their cinemas are so much better than ours. Apart from the fact that their ‘medium’ popcorns and frozen cokes are pretty much the size of a house.

-For my drama exam ‘study’ I was instructed to watch old films from comics like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. I was lead to Chaplin’s City Lights, which is one of the best films I’ve ever seen.

-I got up at 3am to watch the Oscar noms, and even though they were really disappointing, when I heard that Rooney Mara got nominated I let out this excited scream which woke up the entire house. We were going to see War Horse the next day and Mum was none too pleased that I disturbed her sleep.

-The whole bloody July. Best month for DVD releases ever. Aside from the fact that there were a couple of earthquakes during my We Need to Talk About Kevin viewings and I was a little grumpy/movie-hungover from my 'crazy movie night', I loved having so much to watch.

-Finally reading The Great Gatsby properly. I love that book to pieces.

-Every single movie night with my friends, or any moment with my friends. Especially sausage rolls. They know what I'm talking about.

And also, my 16 favourite blog posts that I've written while I was 16:

And because I feel like this post is just too "me me me", here's 16 bloggers who give us the gift of their writing all the time. Being 16 wouldn't have been awesome without them. (If you aren't here, I still love you. Really.)

56 comments:

This is easily one of my favourite posts you've done, and you are my favourite blogger. You've had a great year and I can't wait to see what's in store from you next. You deserve all the popularity and acclaim you get.

I'll congratulate you with your birthday when it comes :) But what a wonderful post! You did a great job with your bloge over this past year and the variety of pieces that you have picked as your favorites proves it.

Thank you thank you thank you for mentioning me! It means a lot, since I'm a huge fan of Cinematic Paradox, so yeah :)

I'd agree with you, being 17 very much felt like being 19 has been for this past week (ha), and, for some reason or other, both of those ages and hitting those marks, well, it didn't, and doesn't feel, that very 'age worthy'. At 17, it's always the "When is 18 going to come?" I felt, but now it's "When are these teenage years going to end?" (though being in the 'adult' world certainly has felt like those days have long gone)!

And thank you for the mention! Happy to have been around this year (and last).

Wonderful stuff Stevee. Excellent post (thanks a bunch for the mention) and excellent year in blogging.

Wow, 17? Christ. Hopefully you will spend your eighteenth year on this planet more responsibly than I spent mine. Shit I was stupid back then. It's incredible how smart and brilliant you are. Enjoy your birthday.

I have known you (in person) for a long time now and i am proud to be one of your friends!I still cant believe its your birthday tomorrow :OYou are so old :P You are an awesome blogger/reviewer and an even better friendI love having our movie nights, they are so fun :)You have successively opened my eyes to the wonderful world of movies. without you i would be clueless (we do live in Dannevirke and Dannevirkins don't know much about good movies )anyway this is getting really long :OI hope i can make your birthday awesome like you deserve

I think that you will quite enjoy your birthday, it will be a good day.I am also glad I am your friend. You are a fricken awesome person (when you aren't dissing my colour vision!) I have watched so many movies because of you that I'd have never seen before and i have learnt a lot about movies from you. I really enjoy our movie nights, they are really fun. I'm kinda sad we won't be having one for ages :( Anyway, I am really proud of all the stuff you have done in the past year, especially yo little directy job :) I love you bro, You're awesome :D

I'm sorry for dissing your colour vision. Christopher Nolan is colour blind too, and we all love him. We'll have another movie night in like three weeks or so :D But we will be watching The Avengers next week.

Aw this post was so cool, happy birthday Stevee! I remember a lot of those favorite posts of yours, great stuff all around. Cinematic Paradox is one of my favorite blogs; can't wait to see the stuff you put out over this next year.

Aaww, you make me remember when I was 16. I was in such a mess back then (kinda still am now).

Anyway you do have an awesome blog and thanks for the mention. I feel like being thanked in an Oscar acceptance speech.

As a birthday treat, here's a trivia: the chronology of historical events on 22 August:565 - St. Colombia reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.1639 - Madras, India is founded by the British East India Company1770 - James Cook lands on Queensland and names the east coast of Australia as New South Wales1902 - Cadillac Motor Company is founded1989 - the first ring of planet Neptune is discovered1995 - the infamous Stevee Taylor makes her first appearance on planet earth2012 - Asrap wishes "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEVEE!!" (insert sound of huge applause, fireworks in the sky, a marching band, and confetti flying in the air for maximum effect)

HB!My year has been comparatively crap, which I suppose comes from being largely housebound and not exactly easily able to go on adventures. Some good film viewing, obviously, but not a great deal of other activity.

Happy birthday Stevee! God, seventeen can you drink yet? I hope you do, I'm turning 23 in few days and this is the worst! With your knowledge by now your blog can only get better so keep on going! And thanks for the link!

You're such a youngun... but sooo talented!! I am amazed at your cinematic knowledge and writing skills, Stevee, and boy you surely have accomplished a lot in such a young age. Happy belated birthday, many happy returns. God bless!!